I’m sitting here staring at a letter I just received from a bloke whose been a customer of ours since 1999, and I really don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry ~ whether to applaud his honesty, decry his sloth, or just be so damned disappointed for him.

The letter came with a request for a refund on a product he ordered from us a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, here’s what he said after asking for a refund:

“I would like to say that there is nothing wrong with Property Trading Genius. In fact it is probably the best business opportunity I have ever bought from you. It is simple and realistic, and it is the reality that has made me aware that I don’t have the gumption and get-up-and-go to put the effort in and make it work.

It’s no good me making excuses about being at work all day and not having the time – I know that wouldn’t wash with you. 

The truth is that I am lazy and want easy money. It has finally dawned on me after all these years that I certainly don’t want to work for it.”

It would be so easy to rip this guy to pieces, but I’m not going to. I’ve been working with would-be ‘entrepreneurs’ for many years now, and I know that a great many of them would write a very similar letter if they were being really honest. It’s not easy admitting something like that to yourself, let alone someone else. But it doesn’t make it any the less true ~ or uncommon.

If you’ve found yourself making business plans that never quite come to fruition, or investigating opportunities that you never quite follow through on because you don’t have enough time/money/experience/ skills/whatever ~ then I’d urge you to be really honest with yourself…

Are there genuine reasons why things haven’t worked out as you’d hoped? Or could you – in a totally candid moment – have very easily written that letter.

The answer will tell you an enormous amount about yourself, and may save you a lot of time, trouble, and heartache in the future. There’s plenty of comfort in self-delusion, but rarely any profit. 
 

 John Harrison

PUBLISHERS NOTICE 

Here’s Game Changing Information If You Ever
Dreamed of Making a Risk Free Second Income
From Your Armchair…

“I Make An Extra £170 to £200 a Week Messing
Around On My iPhone While I’m Watching TV!

Give Me 5 Minutes and I’ll Teach You How To Do It
Too!

Visit: www.streetwisenews.com/simple

It’s difficult to say which was my worst subject at school. There was so much competition.

In a previous post, I told you how my artistic skills never developed at all beyond the infant school, and woodwork was another area where I excelled for all the wrong reasons.

Somewhere in our office, is a coffee table that I made for my CSE woodwork project. It’s not the best coffee table you’ve ever seen, but at least you can tell that it’s supposed to be a table. Except it isn’t.

You’re probably too young to remember this, but in the 1970s, room dividers constructed from wood and doubling as shelves, were quite fashionable. Well that’s what I designed and set out to make. But it kept going wrong, and I kept having to throw bits away, cut bits off, and re-plane edges that for some reason, refused to go square. The end result was that my room divider became a coffee table. I didn’t have enough wood left to make anything else, and no money to buy any more.

I seem to remember that the examiner was reasonably happy with the table, but totally bemused when he tried to relate it to the original plans. Even ‘thickies’ usually pass woodwork. I failed.

The sad thing is that I was only doing woodwork at all because of French. Now that was something I really couldn’t get to grips with. Not sure whether I didn’t have an aptitude, or whether I couldn’t see the point (because I didn’t know any French people) but I was just hopeless. I still have the scathing school report from Miss Bentley (written after I’d scored 21% in the end of term exam) recommending that I: “try something else instead next year ~ like woodwork”. Shows what she knew.

Anyway, I was thinking about French and other languages this morning. My daughter is learning French at the moment, and I was surprised how much I remember (despite being so crap at it). I can tell you the words for most foods and household objects. I can tell you my name, how old I am, what time it is, and even that there’s a cabbage on the table.

And it’s all totally useless.

You see, the moment a French person starts talking, they might just as well be speaking Swahili for all the sense I can make of it. I’m sure I’m not the only one. In fact, I know several people with an A level in a language, who can’t hold a conversation in that language.

What’s going on here?

Well it’s all to do with the difference between theory and practice. When you’re learning a language, everything is done slowly and correctly. You get to work at your own pace and in perfect conditions. But when you do it for real, it’s completely different. You don’t control the pace – it’s much faster than you’re used to. And they don’t do it by the book either. They use slang, dialect, and verbal shorthand in their communications. The end result is that it has little in common with what you’ve learned.

And of course, this isn’t confined to languages…

When I started in business, I had a degree in the subject. I thought I spoke the ‘language’. But like an A level student marooned in Toulouse, I quickly found that what I knew was of little use in a world where everything was faster paced and rarely followed the textbook. I had to learn the slang, dialect and shorthand, and to develop an ‘ear’ for what was really happening. The formal training helped a little – but in my experience, a week ‘on the ground’ is worth a year in the classroom.

Whatever, you want to achieve, my advice would be to get exposure at the coal face rather than the book face. There seems to be a growing trend for employees to be pressured into studying for degrees. In the corporate environment this may be a necessary precursor to getting promotion, but I would question the practical value for most people.

If your goals are entrepreneurial rather than employment focussed, forget trying to get a few letters after your name, and get stuck into something ‘real’ instead. That way, you’ll start picking up practical ‘language skills’ straight away. Others may be better qualified and look better on paper, but you’ll be the one getting things done and reaping the rewards.  

 John Harrison

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer, 

“OMG, Ludlow 3:45…two horses to back. Bott N Brown WON at 25/1 !!! Average odds taken on Betfair exchange 80/1. I backed for £12 winning me £960. Can you please thank Bill for me.” G.B – 6th February 2020

“Many thanks. Thursday OMG Newcastle 5:30. Special Lady WON 50/1. Won £500.” G B – 7th February 2020 

A couple of weeks ago we wrote to you about The Hermes Strategy, a unique approach to horse racing created by Bill Burrows. I’ve reproduced word for word, two emails I received recently from one of our customers who tried the strategy for the first time just a few days ago.

He just won £1,460 in two days! 

Needless to say, he’s pleased!

Now we don’t get 80-1 and 50-1 winners every day (although it looks like we do at the moment!) but because this strategy looks at the whole thing from a VERY unusual angle, long odds winners come along pretty regularly alongside more mundane wins.

It all adds up to a great second income for anyone able to spend 7-10 minutes a day putting the strategy to work. For full details visit… 

www.streetwisenews.com/herm  

You could very easily be up and running and copying Bill within a few hours of reading about this. Everything you need is at your fingertips.

Kind Regards

John Harrison
 Streetwise Publications

P.S. If you can find 7 minutes a day, you can do this for yourself. 

www.streetwisenews.com/herm